This invention relates to screens for wash buckets, and more specifically to a slanted platform supported on a skirt adapted to engage a bucket wall.
It is commonplace to have a bucket for cleaning, such as for washing a car or a floor. A cleaning cloth becoming dirty in use is rinsed in water in the bucket. Debris and dirt are thus transferred into the bucket and settle on the bucket bottom. When the cloth is again rinsed in the bucket, the cloth is subject to picking up that debris and the dirty water at the bucket bottom. It is advantageous to separate debris and dirtier water in the bucket bottom from the cloth being rinsed.
An object of the present invention is to provide a screen for use with a traditional wash bucket that assists a user in rinsing his washing cloth while effectively separating the cloth from dirty rinse water and debris in the bucket. This object is achieved in a wash bucket screen having a slanting platform supported on a frustum skirt. The platform has a plurality of holes interspersed between raised ridges on the platform running radially generally toward its perimeter as an aid in releasing water from a cloth squeezed against the platform.
To effectively prevent backsplash from the bucket bottom back through the screen, the holes taper from a diameter sized to readily collect water on the platform top to a smaller hole diameter on the platform bottom.
The skirt includes a flange on its distal end that engages the bucket wall. To accommodate a frustum bucket with changing wall diameter, the skirt flexes resiliently with the flange engaging the bucket wall and the skirt flexing inward as the screen is inserted in a bucket with decreasing diameter. To allow movement of the skirt, a plurality of slits extend vertically, opening at the skirt distal end, providing an effective splash shield between the skirt and the bucket wall.
A plurality of vertical channels open between the platform and the skirt distal end to conduct water and debris flowing from the platform to the bucket bottom.
A finger hole in the platform aids in removing the screen from the bucket.
The screen can be used with water in the bucket below the screen, in which case water from the washing cloth is squeezed into the bucket by aid of the screen. Fresh water is obtained elsewhere. The screen can also be used with water in the bucket above the screen, in which case the screen separates more dirty water and debris settling below the screen from cleaner water above the screen. The washing cloth is then rinsed in the cleaner water without stirring water below the screen into the cloth, the dirtier water being effectively blocked by the screen, causing a natural separation within the water. Upon each rinse of the cloth, dirty water, rocks and debris from a rinsed cloth settle through the screen holes into the bottom of the bucket, generally before the cloth is rinsed again in preparation for a subsequent cloth rinsing.